by Patrick A. Heller Last week, the World Gold Council released a different survey on the retail gold market. A total of 18,000 people were surveyed, 2,000 investors each in Canada, China, Germany, India, Russia, and the United States and 2,000 jewelry buyers each in China, India, and the U.S. The results were not that surprising to me but might confound others. There were five key themes that came out of the survey: • People are confident in gold and loyal to the metal. • While people are confident in gold as a concept, those who have never purchased physical gold have trust issues about the purity of gold products and with some gold retailers. • Attitudes toward gold were largely consistent among all age groups. • Digital access to information about gold and to conduct online transactions lags behind that of other forms of investment. • There is generally low awareness about gold among people who do not yet own any. In total, 48 percent of people surveyed had already pur...